There’s no shame in bugs.
Really. In consumer-grade software, there are bugs. I wish it wasn’t so, but it is so. I can’t think of a product I’ve used in the past 20 years that hasn’t had a bug or two.
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Archive for January, 2005
Mediocrity Begins at Home
January 31st, 2005 by peterbLazy Food
January 28th, 2005 by psuI like to cook but I am, by nature, a rather lazy person. This can be a problem at times, since good food is often labor intensive. Luckily, many of the best things you can make do not require your full attention during the making. So here are some easy recipes for great food that you can make while playing Halo.
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Pants!
January 27th, 2005 by peterbIt’s been a while since the last top ten list. You know what that means.
Today’s topic: famous quotations that are improved if you replace one of the nouns with the word “pants.” Some of the sources are obvious, some are a little more obscure. The tag of whoever suggested a particular twisted quote follows each quote in italics. Feel free to ask for attributions for the original quotes or contribute your own entries in the comments.
“It is bitter — bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my pants.” [peterb]
Hope is the thing with trousers. [peterb]
Cover her face; my pants dazzle; she died young. [agroce]
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Quick Pick: Land of Legends
January 26th, 2005 by peterb
Indie Game Week may be over, but that doesn’t mean Tea Leaves won’t continue its coverage of independent games. Since yesterday’s article was about consoles that can only be used to play duly authorized corporate funded and developed megaprojects, let’s veer off today and look at a small, independently-produced game for Windows PCs: Tiny Hero Game Studio’s Land of Legends.
As I’ve mentioned several times, I have a soft spot in my heart for turn-based tactical combat games. Land of Legends falls firmly into this category, derived straight from board games such as Squad Leader and computer games such as Warlords. Here’s a few brief comments about Land of Legends, based on the beta.
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Console Buying
January 25th, 2005 by psuEarlier I babbled at length about the three major consoles. Well, the result predicted in that piece has come to pass. I have come out of the other side of the Christmas season with a new GameCube and a new slim line PS2.
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Unfinished Business
January 24th, 2005 by peterbYesterday, I finished The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
It took me about 2 years or so to finish it. This isn’t because the game was particularly hard, but because about 18 months ago I reached the final dungeon, made it most of the way through, and then, dreading the inevitable endless boss battle, set the game aside.
My game shelf is a study in unfinished business. Just glancing along it I can see numerous games that I’ve abandoned midway through. As I look at them, I feel a vague sense of unease, of foreboding. A sense of obligations unmet.
I feel guilty because I didn’t play games.
The odd thing is, this doesn’t happen to me over, for example, books. With a book, I tend to either read it until I’m finished, or decide that it’s not worth reading. Then I put the book away forever without any guilt whatsoever. It seems to be only videogames which throw me into such emotional turmoil.
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Beef Braised in Two Buck Chuck
January 21st, 2005 by peterbAfter mentioning this dish in passing in the “what to drink” article, I realized that it was worth sharing the recipe. It is based loosely on one of Mario Batali’s. My version is a little bolder, and about 350% cheaper.
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Sticks and Stones
January 20th, 2005 by peterb
The second most tiresome thing about the “there’s too much violence in these newfangled videogames” discussion is that violence has always been a part of games.
The argument is made, usually poorly, that today’s violence is “worse” because graphics today are so much more vivid than they were in the past. This is twaddle. More accessible, perhaps, but not necessarily worse.
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What To Drink (Booze Edition)
January 19th, 2005 by peterbSince psu covered cooking equipment yesterday, I wanted to talk a little about ingredients. In particular, alcohol. The typical home bar — and I use the term “bar” loosely, in my house it’s just The Cupboard With The Booze In It — is stocked more by happenstance than by planning. If, as is common, you buy your alcohol on an as-needed basis (”Oh, I need two ounces of Jasper’s Honeydew-and-Prosciutto Liqueur for these cookies…”) and don’t drink a lot yourself, then you end up with large quantities of comparatively expensive bottles that neither you nor anyone else will ever drink taking up lots of space. If you plan what you want or need, you can avoid that.
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Stuff you need for cooking
January 18th, 2005 by psuHobbyist cooks are almost by definition equipment and gadget freaks. This is one endeavor where the latent object has great power.
Therefore, as a public service, I’m here to tell you what I think you really need, and what is just stuff that’s nice to have.
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